Paras Griffin/BET/Getty Images for BET
Say it ain’t so, pop culture fans!
As 2019 kicks into high gear, it appears Toni Braxton and Bryan “Birdman” Williams have called off their engagement and gone their separate ways.
“It’s over….” the rapper shared—then deleted—on Instagram Story on Tuesday. Toni would also cleanse her Instagram profile writing, “Starting a new chapter isn’t always an easy choice…but ALWAYS choose to be chosen. Cheers to a new year.”
The news came as a huge bummer for fans who have watched the couple’s love story unfold.
While the pair first met in 2002 while working on “Baby You Can Do It” together, things didn’t turn romantic until May 2016. They would later make their first public appearance as a couple at the 2016 BET Awards.
But upon further investigation, perhaps there were plenty of signs that these two weren’t heading to the altar after all.
Some were concerned in November when Toni accidentally left a piece of her Louis Vuitton luggage containing her engagement ring on an airplane.
“Hey everyone, @delta located my LV Train Case! Yay!” she later wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately most of my jewelry items are missing…including MY ENGAGEMENT RING! Whoever BORROWED it…PLEEEASE return it!!!! I promise, no questions asked!”
Another major speed bump was determining a wedding date. When appearing on E! News’ Daily Pop, Toni revealed that Birdman “said I have to pick a date by the end of the year.”
“We have to get married before the year is out,” she explained. “He said, ‘Before next year.’ He said that we can go through a drive-through. I’m like, what are we gonna order, fries? So no.”
And when sitting down with Wendy Williams, Toni admitted that there was a 70 percent chance they’d be married by the end of 2018.
“We almost had a date,” she confessed on The Wendy Williams Show. “Well, we had two dates. But we were doing Braxton Family Values and we were going through a little drama. And I was like, ‘The wedding is a good thing to get all the sisters together.’ [But] I couldn’t get us all together.”
In recent episodes of WE tv’s Braxton Family Values, Toni also assured fans that she was setting up meetings with celebrity wedding planner Mindy Weiss to plan a Great Gatsby themed celebration.
Ultimately, her services may no longer be needed.
“I haven’t set a date because of my schedule,” Toni confessed. “I hate that. That’s not a good thing. You’re supposed to set a date and stick to it but unfortunately our business can be challenging sometimes.”
Today, the pair no longer follows each other on Instagram. And while the family is staying quiet for now, we have a feeling more details shall be coming soon.